The Darkness and an Ancient
by fmfan1980
Summary: Just a (Hopefully not stupid) idea I had yesterday. The Ancient known as Athena is relaxing on board the Destiny when it comes upon a galaxy it refuses to enter. She sees a strange energy signature that has covered the entire galaxy before she leaves to investigate. What is it? Why is it only present in this particular galaxy?And why does she see darkness spreading like a cancer?


**Disclaimer: **I do not own Star Wars or Stargate SG-1.

**A/N: **The Athena character in this story is the same as the one in my An Extraordinary Journey story (background on her would be spread on chapters 104 to 110). This story was just a thought I had one day while watching old episodes of SG-1 followed by a Star Wars marathon on TV. Cheers.

**The Starship Destiny.**

The Alterran starship, Destiny, was silent as it sped through a modified hyperspace tunnel. At least the interiors were silent which was not at all surprising since the ship was unmanned. The Alterra who were supposed to board the ship never did, especially since they started to focus their research on another new area of interest, Ascension, soon after its launch. The silence around her was just what Athena desired as she walked through the dark hallways of this ancient vessel built by her ancestors millions of years ago. The ship's internal sensors didn't register her presence, and she wanted it that way since any attempt by the ship to initiate life support systems would take away power from the hyperdrive engines which were pushing the ship through a modified hyperspace tunnel towards another galaxy. And as it was, the Destiny was nearly through the galactic void and into the next galaxy - one which was billions upon billions of light years away from where the ship was first launched; the planet her people once called Terra in the galaxy of Avalon.

Now known as Earth, the people were back to a primitive state when compared to the Alterran civilization. Yet, it was a world where Athena created a simple life for herself after her people left Atlantis following their defeat in the war against the Wraith in the Pegasus Galaxy. It would be years later, after what she would consider to be one of her great mistakes, through a journey of redemption and forgiveness, she achieved ascension into another plane of existence.

As she walked through the hallways of the Destiny, she gave off a faint glow to light her way. The Destiny AI was running the ship, and it was charged with following the Seed Ships responsible for constructing and depositing Stargates into the worlds of different galaxies, and then signalling those locations back to the Destiny for cataloging. Then there was the other reason for the construction of the Destiny. Athena could recall her history lessons on Atlantis so long ago; that it was not long after the creation of the Stargates that the ancient Alterra discovered a pattern in the Cosmic microwave background radiation. The Alterra of that time realized this pattern could not have been natural in origin, and so they hypothesized its very presence suggested an order to the universe never thought possible. 'I was taught the early Alterra believed it was a message of some kind,' Athena thought to herself. However, the message was fragmented and could not be recovered fully. To that end, they devoted the efforts of an entire generation to the construction of Destiny with one of its purposes being finding and reassembling these fragments, and thus completing the message. Athena was truely awed at the knowledge the ship must have collected over the tens of millions of years after it was launched, 'will you ever be done?'

As she continued her walk through the silent hallways, Athena heard a 'screech' before there was a flash of white and blue light all around her.

'The hyperdrive stopped,' Athena thought to herself before she took a step forward. As she did so, she simply thought about the Destiny's viewing gallery and that is where she found herself with her arms folded, one over the another, on her chest. With many unused chairs and tables all around her, Athena walked towards the railing at the end of the large room. She looked out at the disc-shaped galaxy stretched out in front of her and frowned.

'There is something odd,' Athena thought to herself as the ship started to bank to the port side and away from the galaxy, 'did no seed ships travel to that galaxy? Are there no Stargates anywhere on any world?' The Seed Ships, launched a century before Destiny, were supposed to construct and deposit Stargates to every world, even those that did not support life. So, to have a whole galaxy that was completely avoided by the Seed Ships was very unusual. 'The Destiny is following the path taken by those Seed Ships. So, a Seed Ship must have stopped here, just outside the galaxy, and then made its way to another galaxy?' Athena pressed her lips together to a thin line before she teleported herself out into space with the large ship behind her.

Athena looked back over her shoulder as the Destiny finished moving away while the rear engines glowed a bright blue. It wasn't long before that there was a blue and white hued cloud forming several meters in front of the ship caused by a rip in space; the rear engines then flashed a bright blue before the ship shot into that rip. Once the rip in space closed, Athena gave a small smile at the thought that Destiny was continuing her journey. Turning back towards the galaxy in front of her, Athena tilted her head upon noticing something unusual. She could see was what appeared to be a blue hued energy field that covered the entire galaxy.

At the same time, as she wondered about this energy field and why it was that this was the first galaxy she had seen with this phenomenon, she could sense the eyes of the Others staring at her. She suspected they were watching to see what her next move would be. Their rule was non-interference in the lower planes of existence. And Athena was very well aware of the dangers in interfering with the natural evolution of mortals and supposed immortals in the lower planes of existence. However, despite the great non-interference rule of the Others, Athena was curious by nature. Her figure glowed a bright white while being formed into a shapeless form that shot towards the galaxy laid out in front of her.

Even though she was formless, Athena imagined her lips pressed together as she took in the surroundings after piercing through the blue energy field. Although no one, not even any cosmic force, should be able to discover her presence; Athena could feel everything that was happening around the galaxy. Ordinarily she would be at one with any galaxy she traveled to, but this was different. She felt as if there was a heightened perception of what was happening all around her. And she never felt anything this heightened ever during her travels. She could sense hatred, rage, grief, greed, evil, and even more negative emotions in what could only be described as an invisible miasma of an all-encompassing darkness that was currently leeching out into the galaxy from a central point. She could already sense a very distant part of the galaxy already shrouded in darkness… the blue hue in that location was so dark that it could be very well a blackness where no light could escape. Her heightened awareness told her that the darkness in that area of the galaxy was small relative to the rest of the galaxy. But this other darkening of the blue field surrounding the galaxy seemed to be emanating outwards from a central planet; this darkness was nearly just as raw and turbulent as the other dark area of the galaxy.

Athena was also aware of the wars taking place all over the galaxy; it reminded her of another galaxy several million light years away. That particular galaxy was at war as well; and it had gotten so violent that by the end… out of a population of trillions, only a handful survived. Athena could recall walking on the blood-soaked streets of the capital planet as ships flew overhead firing spheres of plasma at the buildings which housed the leadership of the very people who started the war of genocide. Every planet was the same in that galaxy… fields and fields of bodies whose blood stained the ground they lay upon.

She continued towards the world where this darkness was emanating from. Even after seeing the wonders of so many galaxies before this one, Athena could still be surprised as she approached the planet where the darkness was emanating from; and she was awestruck. From above, the planet was like a shining jewel in space. However, the closer she got to the plant, the more she could see the debris of ships and bodies that were orbiting the planet.

'There must have been a great battle in orbit of this planet,' Athena thought as she entered the atmosphere. The light blue energy field of the galaxy was already a darker shade upon appearing in what she assumed was the locus of this darkness. She found herself staring at the back of an old man with combed grey hair staring out the window at the numerous flying vehicles zooming past. She could see waves of darkness around the man spreading out into the open space around him. The energy then went outside his office and seemed to darken the blue field of energy that covered this planet. The very same energy field that filled this particular galaxy.

"Senator," he spoke in a calm voice that belied the anger Athena sensed from him. Athena could see that he was speaking into an earpiece , "I can assure you I have no intention of holding onto the powers granted by the Senate longer than I have to. Once General Grievous has been found, I will implore the Senate to begin an immediate reversal of the emergency powers granted to me."

Athena turned away from the man who continued speaking into his earpiece. Her eyes glanced at the paintings on the wall, as well as the numerous sculptures before settling on a statue of red and blue armour to her left. All the while, she could feel the dark energy in the large room trying to 'stick' onto her like mud. However, it was unable to even pierce the shield around her body that prevented anyone from sensing her presence. Sighing, Athena sensed everything around her was contaminated with this darkness… from the carpet covering the floor, to the walls, to the table and the papers on the desk, the desk itself, and the tablets on the desk, to the ornaments on the walls, to the paintings, the sculptures, and even the armour she was staring at. She could sense the whole planet was already contaminated with this darkness emanating from the old man.

She was feeling sickened from just staring at the darkness in the energy field all around her. Athena took in a deep breath while changing her perception of the world around her. Now she was seeing everything as a normal human; she could not see the swirling dark blue energy field around her. However, she could still feel its presence, and it was very strong.

Athena was about to turn around when she felt a surge of anger. And just as she felt that surge, she heard a 'bzzzzz' before there was a glowing red blade of light that pierced through her chest. It was then she heard a voice full of malice and hate whisper just behind her.

"Who are you?"

Athena was surprised. No one should be able to sense her, especially not any human.

'But this one did,' Athena thought as she looked down her chest at the red glowing blade which continued to buzz violently, 'interesting, very interesting.'

TBC.


End file.
